Doctor Who

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Show of the week

He's back! This is a tingling introduction to young viewers and
a most satisfying reunion for old, partly because the Tardis (Time
And Relative Dimensions In Space) flies again as only an old London
police box could possibly manage.

This new doctor also tempts because writer Russell T. Davis
takes an adult approach to one of television's most famous
characters - and children will appreciate that. Davis overrides the
cash-strapped production values of the past to make his new doctor
competitive in a high-tech market, but keeps his soul alive with
such jokes as bicycle-pumped gadgetry in the Tardis.

Playing this attractive hero with a cheeky north-country accent
is Christopher Eccleston, the Christ-like enigma in The Second
Coming, Davis's most recent drama. Old sparks of sexuality
between the doctor and his assistant are enhanced by the arrival of
Billie Piper, pop star and rising actress (The Canterbury
Tales, hopefully soon on ABC). Piper plays Rose Tyler, a London
shop girl, more the doctor's equal than previous companions - no
mean achievement against Eccleston's acting skills.

The young (they will start around eight years) occasionally may
be mildly scared, not a bad quality in a series that also mixes-in
the humour of the wheelie-bin sequence. Older viewers (the doctor's
friends can never be too ancient) will find Eccleston easily the
best time lord since Tom Baker. And he never had a Tardis like
this.